Sectional doorway



March 2, 1937. J. F. DANIELL SECTIONAL DOORWAY Filed Jan. 16,-1953 3 Sheets-Sheet l JFDanieZZ J. F. DANlELL SECTIONAL DOORWAY Filed Jan. 16, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 March Z, 1937.

Jffian ie ZZ March 2, 1937. J DANIELL 2,072,514

SECTI ONAL DOORWAY Filed Jan. 16, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Flt WAN/1 J Patented Mar. 2, 1937 UNITED STATES ,iati

SECTIONAL DOORWAY James F. Daniell, Columbus, Ohio, assignor to Ralston Steel Car Company, Columbus, Ohio, a

corporation of Ohio Application January 16, 1933, Serial No. 651,878

1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in roll er-mounted sectional doors, and has particular reference to that type of door composed of a plurality of hingedly connected sections wherein each section is provided with rollers arranged for movement in connection with guide tracks admitting of vertical movement in the opening or closing of an associated doorway, and wherein the guide tracks terminate in horizontal extensions projecting inwardly from the doorway contiguous to the ceiling of a room, so that when the door is in an elevated or open position, it will be arranged in .an out of the Way location to avoid interference with the passage of objects through the doorway governed thereby. In door structures of this type, counter-balancing springs may be provided so that little manual effort need be employed in the raising or lowering thereof.

Heretofore, such sectional doors have been formed mainly of wood, with the result that the same are not fire resistant and manufacturing difficulties or objections are present in the matter of maintaining adequate supplies of seasoned lumber to meet production requirements. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a door or rollered closure of the type specified wherein the hingedly united sections thereof are formed from pressed sheet metal so formed as to produce door sections of exceptional strength, durability, lightness in weight, fire resistant and other advantages hitherto not available in. the standard wooden types of doors.

'It is another object of the invention to form the metallic door sections so that they may be substituted for the standard wooden sections now in general use without difliculty or change in the guiding and counter-balancing appliances used in connection with such wooden doors, so that substitution may be effected at low expense and .without undue loss of material.

A further object of the invention resides in pivotally mounting the guide tracks in which the rollers of the door sections are received, so that when the door sections are in a positoin of doorway closure, the track rails may, through a wedging action, be forced to a position bringing the sections of the door into tightly fitting relationship with the door jamb.

With these and other objects in view, which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention consists in the novel features of construction, combination of elements and arrangements of parts hereinafter fully described and pointed out in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a motor vehicle garage provided with a rollered sectional door formed in accordance with the present invenion;

Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the sectional door, as when viewed from the interior of a building;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken through the door and its associated guiding and counterbalancing means;

Fig. 4 is a detailed vertical sectional view'taken on the plane indicated by the line l-t of Fig. 2 and illustrating one of the roller supports used in connection with the upper section of the door;

Fig. 5 is a similar view on the line 5-5 of Fig. 2, disclosing the cross sectional formation of the lower section of the door;

Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view on the line 6-45 of Fig. 2 disclosing the hinge connections and roller supports between adjoining door secions;

Fig. '7 is a detail vertical sectional view on the line 'l--1 of Fig. 2 and illustrating the door looking mechanism;

Fig. 8 is a horizontal sectional view on the line 88 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 9 is an enlarged detail view of the lower corner of the door;

Fig. 10 is a sectional view on the line l@-lil of Fig. 9.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the numeral l designates my improved door structure in its entirety. In this instance, the door is formed to comprise a plurality of hingedly united metallic sections designated by the numerals Z, 3, 4 and 5. These sections are each of substantially rectangular formation and are pressed or stamped from sheet metal of suitable gauge, i. e., thickness. To strengthen or reenforce the panels or sections 5, and at the same time to impart a decorative appearance thereto, the said sections are formed with inwardly depressed regions 6, which, in turn, may be of rectangular or other suitable configuration. Also, these depressed portions 6 may contain glass panels (not shown), if desired. Additional stability and strength are imparted to each of the door sections by forming the four sides of the latter toinclude inwardly extending flanges l which may be composed of one or more thicknesses of metal. For instance, as shown in Fig. 5, the bottom edge of the lower section 2 may have its flange 1 bent to produce an inwardly and reversely extending flange 8, which terminates in an upwardly directed flange 9 lying adjacent to the front wall of the section 2. By this formation, the bottom of the section 2 is greatly reenforced so that it may withstand without distortion the blows and jars incident to the striking thereof on the floor I of the door opening II.

The upper edges of the sections 2, 3 and 4 are formed with inwardly offset portions i2, which produce longitudinally extending recesses iii, the portions I2 terminating in inwardly and horizontally extending flanges I4. The meeting lower edges of the sections 3, 4 and 5 are formed with flanged extensions I5 which are received within the recesses I3 to produce a smooth flush wall of weather-excluding construction, the extensions I 5 terminating inwardly in horizontally extending flanges I6 which engage with the flanges I4. The vertical sides of each of the sections to 5 inclusive includes side flanges ll of a depth corresponding to the top and bottom flanges I 4 and I 6 respectively.

In order to hingedly unite the door sections, the latter have secured, by welding or otherwise, to the inner faces thereof metallic spacing pads I8 to which are connected hinge members It and 20. The hinge members 2% are formed with apertured ears 2% for the reception of shafts 22, and surrounding the shafts and positioned between the ears 2i are the inwardly offset sleeve extensions 23 of the hinge members I9. Preferably, the door sections are formed with intermediate and outer sets of hinges, and the outer hinge members have their shafts 22 extended to receive rollers 24. These rollers are positioned in substantially vertically extending flanged guide tracks 25 arranged at the opposite sides of the door jamb 26. As shown in Figs. 3 and 9, the lower ends of these tracks are connected with horizontally extending pivots 21 carried by stationary brackets 28, supported in connection with the lower portion of the door jamb. By reference to Fig. 8, it will be observed that the rollers 24 while free to revolve about the axis of their respective shafts 22 are sufficiently restrained by the flanges of the track to limit the movement of the door structure to predetermined paths of travel.

The lower corners of the bottom section 2 are formed with bracket plates 29 secured by bolts 30 to a front wall of the section 2, the plate 29 being maintained in vertical registration with the inner edges of the flanges I and I! by means of spacing sleeves 3| which surround the bolts 35 and are arranged between the brackets 28 and the front wall of the section 2. The bracket plates are formed with outwardly projecting ears 32 for the reception of shafts 33 which carry a lower set of rollers 24. Extrusions 34 are provided on the shafts 33 to limit longitudinal movement thereof in the bearings provided in connection with the ears 32.

The upper corners of the top door section 5 have their inner faces provided with bracket pads 35 which effect the rotatable support of shafts 36 which carry rollers 24a, the latter being received within the guide tracks 25. The pads 35,

however, project inwardly to a greater extent than the hinge members l9 and 20, so that the rollers 24a may be positioned to conform to the arcuate configuration, as indicated at 31, of the upper ends of the tracks 25.

In order to secure a door structure which will closely engage its jamb when in a position of doorway closure, the upper section 5 has its inner surface provided, as shown in Figs 3 and 8, with fixed brackets 38 formed with laterally directed fingers 39, which are adapted for engagement with wedge cleats 4i! stationarily carried at the sides of the door jamb. It will be seen that when the door structure reaches a position of closure, the fingers 39, by contact with the cleats 40, will effect the oscillation of the track members 25 about their pivots 21, so that the door sections will be firmly wedged into closing engagement with the corresponding meeting surfaces of the door jamb. However, immediately upon the elevation of the door structure, the fingers 39 are freed from contact with the cleats 40 so that the door may be elevated easily and without undue friction.

To limit the oscillation of the track members 25, I employ fixed stop members 4!, as shown in Fig. 8. These stop members engage at intervals the track members and are formed with slots 42, and the said track members are provided with studs 43, which are movable in the slots 42 and limit the degree of oscillation of the track members.

The counter-balancing of the door structure is accomplished, as usual, by providing the lower section 2 with eye bolts 44 which receive the lower ends of cables 45. These cables extend upwardly along the side flanges I! and pass over sheaves 46 carried by an inwardly projecting hanger 4'! secured to the upper portion of the door jamb above the door opening I I. The cables are passed around a second set of sheaves 48 and are secured to stationary hooks 49 formed with the hangers 47. The sheaves 48 are united by means of shackles 50 with the outer ends of coil springs 5|, while the inner ends of said coil springs are connected as at 52 with a stationary roof hanger 53. The hanger 41 has its outer portion connected with substantially horizontally disposed track members 54, which register with the curved upper ends of the track members 25. The track members 54 however are stationary but are in constant registration with the curved ends 31 of the members 25 due to the relatively limited degree of oscillatory movement permitted the members 25.

The bottom section 2 may be provided with handles 55, which may be grasped in the raising and lowering of the door structure. Due to the customary spring counter-balancing of the door structure, the latter may be easily raised or lowered with the expenditure of but slight manual effort. To look the door structure in a position of closure, the intermediate section 3 is provided with the usual rotatable disk 56 with which are eccentrically connected the inner ends of lockbars 51, the outer ends of said bars being slidably received in brackets 58, carried by the section 3, and are adapted to be received within openings 59 provided in the track members 25. A keyactuated cylinder lock 69 is preferably employed for controlling the rotation of the disk 56.

In summary, it will be observed that the present invention provides a so-called overhead type of door wherein the hinged door sections are of metallic fireproof construction. These door sections are strongly constructed so that they are not apt to warp, bend or distort and will therefore retain proper operative relationship with associated parts of the door mechanism after extended periods of service. Also, these metallic door sections are formed so that standard operating appliances may be associated therewith, thus minimizing the costs of substituting the metallic sections for the heretofore employed wooden sections. Another feature of the invention which I consider to be of importance is the pivoting of the track members 25 so that they may oscillate to a limited extent whereby to bring the door sections, when the latter are in a position of closure, into firm sealing engagement with the sides of the door jamb. As shown in Fig. 3, when the door sections occupy a position of closure, the track members 25 are arranged substantially vertically and parallel with the door sections, instead of being disposed in acute angular relationship with respect to the door sections as heretofore. My improved arrangement permits the hinged members i 9 and 20m be of uniform construction and avoids progressive offsetting of the shafts 22 as is necessary when the track members 25 are disposed in angular relationship to the door sections;

What is claimed is:

A sectional door structure comprising a plurality of rectangular sections, hinge means uniting said sections, anti-friction devices projecting from the ends of said sections, guide rails mounted independently of said door sections adjacent to the sides of the doorway and in which said anti-friction devices are received from the said guide rails terminating at their upper ends in substantially arcuate extensions, horizontal pivotal connections for mounting the lower ends of said guide rails, stop means for limiting the extent of oscillation of said guide rails, stationary horizontally extending guide rails arranged in registration with the arcuate extensions provided in the upper ends of the movable guide rails, counter-balancing means connected with said door sections to facilitate travel thereof in connection with the movable and stationary guide rails, stationary wedge brackets mounted independently of the movable guide rails, and means carried by one of said door sections and cooperative with said wedge brackets when said door sections are in a position of closure to cause sufficient movement of the movable guide rails to bring the door sections carried thereby into firm closing engagement with an associated door jamb.

JAMES F. DANIELL. 

